♦[STORY] Wanna Tell Visual Stories, but Short on Filmmaking Gear, a Degree, or Money? Comics Let's You Practice
Comics are a unique medium, and mastery dives into deep waters. They're idiosyncratic story forms, page & panel flow, pacing, page turns, and balloons. But even shallow explorations yield benefits.
But I also believe this:
If you're struggling just to tell a basic story—visually, clearly, emotionally—then comics might be the smartest way to start.
Not because comics are easy. But because comics expose the problem early.
If you can't show us who wants what and why we should care? A comic will make that painfully obvious on page one.
So, I'm going to argue something that may sound like heresy to the specialists:
Even if you don't want to be a comic creator—even if you dream of directing, animating, or writing for games or YouTube—comics are one of the best training grounds you'll ever have for visual storytelling.
Comics Are a Playground with Sharp Edges
Comics are hard. They converge three distinct skillsets:
Writing (narrative structure, character, pacing),
Drawing (composition, acting, design), and
Marketing (getting it in front of people, listening to feedback, showing your work again and again).
But unlike film, comics don't require a team. Comics don't require a fancy RED camera, a sound department, or $200,000 in restricted film grants. You don't need a degree in screenwriting or a top-of-the-line MacBook to start. You don't even need Photoshop.
You need a pencil, a piece of paper, and a willingness to struggle through the blank page, the glaring silence on the paper.
(If you want to splurge, get a Blackwing pencil.)
Story Matters Now More Than Ever
We live in a world saturated with content and starved for story.
Every platform is hungry for visual storytellers, people who can hook an audience, capture attention, frame emotion, and deliver narrative clarity in motion or stillness.
The best YouTube videos do this. The best animation, advertising, and even social media content do this. But most creators don't start with storytelling. They start with tools.
Creators obsess over the specifics, like frame rates, brush packs, or the "perfect" camera setup. But they don't know how to set up a scene. Specialists don't convey motive. They don't make us care. Well, they might, but that's not their primary responsibility.
Comics cut through that.
There's nowhere to hide. If your story isn't working, the page will show you.
And if it is working? You've just taught yourself something you can apply to every other medium you encounter.
Learn the Grammar of Visual Storytelling
Here's what you learn by making a short comic—even a rough one:
How to establish where you are and when.
How to reveal a character's goal through action, not explanation.
How to block characters in a space that feels real.
How to signal emotion through pose and proximity.
How to use sequence and layout to create momentum.
If you can do that in comics, you can do that in storyboards, in animatics, in film pre-vis, in explainer videos, in pitch decks, and in classrooms.
You may not become Jim Lee. That might not even be the goal. But you'll become someone who understands what a story is, how it works, and how to show it to someone else.
That is not a small thing.
The Deep End Is Damn Deep. You Don't Have to Drown
Look—this is not about minimizing the medium. Comics are deep. Comics are weird. Comics can do things no other form can do. The best comics are masterworks of timing, silence, tension, poetry, and contradiction.
But don’t let all that depth scare you off. You can do it.
Because comics also reward those who try. Those who start.
But, start small. If you're twelve and dreaming of becoming an animator—draw a comic. If you're twenty-two and frustrated that your short films suck—make a comic. If you're forty-five and trying to build a business—tell your brand story in six panels.
You'll learn something. You'll learn a lot.
Here's My Message
I want better stories in the world. More captivating stories. More moving ones. More weird ones. I want fewer boring stories about people being clever jerks who learn nothing. I want to see your story. I want you to get better at telling it.
Because when I meet students, creators, or professionals who tell me, "I want to be a storyteller," I believe them. I also know most of them don't really know what that means yet.
And that's okay.
Because if you're willing to draw a comic, even a short one, even a terrible one, you will begin to understand.
You'll learn that a sequence of events is not a story. That's just a report. A real story has structure, stakes, emotional friction, and transformation. And if you learn that—if you learn how to write a better story, then draw it, then share it—you'll have something no AI can take from you:
A voice, a vision, and the skill to make people care.
Try This:
Make a 3-page comic. Nothing fancy.
One character.
One want.
One obstacle.
One change.
Draw it stick-figure style if you have to. Use index cards and tape. Doesn't matter.
But, if you approach this with care and genuinely try to tell the story instead of just explaining it, you'll be a better visual storyteller by the end of the week.
And that's a win.
Because your story matters. Let's make it matter to others, too.